What were you like in elementary school?

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Gazelle
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16 Mar 2013, 4:40 pm

In school I did very well academically in 1st and 2nd grade and was an excellent reader and speller. In 3rd grade I moved overseas from the U.S. and had to take a foreign language in school and I was behind in math compared to others. This made me grow as a person and a student, but it was a bit of a struggle at times. Since I was forced to take a foreign language early on I became very good at learning languages and still like learning different languages. In junior high we moved yet it again and it was difficult and I had a math tutor, but otherwise did fairly well in school. Well my grades in 8th or 9th grade were split with really good grades in English and history and poor grades in math and maybe social studies so that was a sign maybe that I had some kind of learning difficulty. I did ok later on in high school and we moved again in 10th grade. In college I did well and I did have tutors for chemistry and algebra, but in graduate school I did not have tutors and made excellent grades. I was always well behaved since I was quiet and did not disrupt the class. I was not always a happy student since social difficulties were becoming more apparent in junior high and high school. I attributed the social issues with being shy and moving around often. Now I have come to realize I have NVLD.


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Parasol
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16 Mar 2013, 5:35 pm

I was quiet and shy. I didn't talk to anyone really during kindergarten and grade 1 expect to a few students when I had to, the teachers and my caregiver. I didn't make any friends and I played alone. I had meltdowns and crying fits over small things like being overwhelmed from people talking to me or getting hurt.

When I was grade 2, I struggled with schoolwork and I got bullied by a few people for being an odd little s**t. I had little to no friends. I felt lonely. I started to get depression which I think no one should go through. I started to become a pessimistic and started swearing a lot which I still have those traits.

When I got older, my grades got very good due to my tutor and my parents helping me on homework. I started to become a perfectionist (still got that trait too) and got upset over grades I didn't like. I wanted to be homeschooled or be dead because I felt that almost all the students were judging me. I had to also go to this place before and after school because both of my parents had to work for long hours and I couldn't go home on my own. I got teased there too for a while.

Eventually, when some of bullies started leaving my school, I had to start overcoming my depression on my own (which I did but it took a while). I knew information very well and my gross motor skills sucked. I saw groups of people outside (I hated going outdoors for recess and lunch so I sometimes hid the classroom or washroom) and I envyed them for having best friends. I got jealous at someone for being very smart, having almost everyone like her and having good physical skills.

I always wanted to leave the school so I can go to highschool. When grad happened (it kinda sucked actually), most people acted like they were going to miss the school but I was happy as hell. I also found out that I had Autism when it was the last year of elementary school and near the summer.

I would rather never experience elementary school again.



cjthemadscientist
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16 Mar 2013, 6:00 pm

Quiet kid who was alone all the time, always caught up in my own world and totally oblivious that socializing existed until about the 5th grade. I was also the top of my grade and won awards and such, making me a very hated person. I always was the center of controversy even though I had no friends haha.



Dizzee
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16 Mar 2013, 6:15 pm

Asocial. Shy is a wrong term I think for most aspies cuz It's not like we are scared to be a part of the group we just don't find it appealing to us. Mostly people who are very accustomed to alot of attention from others like to describe us like this.


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StarTrekker
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16 Mar 2013, 7:44 pm

I was a bit of an odd kid, though I didn't realise how odd at the time. I never had friends in elementary school, in second and fifth grade I had an acquaintance that I sometimes played with on the playground, but that was it. I didn't know how to talk to the other kids on the playground, nor was I interested to. I spent most of third, fourth and fifth grade sitting outside reading. In fourth grade one of the playground monitors even came up to me and said, "Why don't I hold your book for you so you can go play with the other kids?" I was afraid of strangers so I did what she said, wandering aimlessly around the playground until some other kids invited me to play four square. I had a really hard time keeping organised and in third grade was given a second desk to spread my work out on so I could keep track of things better. I was smart but got poor grades because the material was never interesting, and in second grade I had an impossible time remembering to do my homework. It didn't help that my teacher inexplicably hated me and got cross with me constantly for what I could see was no apparent reason. From kindergarten to third grade I was the class pet because, being born premature, I was tiny compared to my classmates, who thought picking me up and carrying me around was the best game ever. I couldn't really blame them though; I had to use a kindergarten-sized desk until third grade. Either due to the AS or the prematurity, my fine and gross motor skills sucked too, and I remember my kindergarten teacher trying to teach me how to walk down stairs with both feet. Because of this also my handwriting really sucked, and sort of still does. I never realised how much I hated those years until I finally left them behind.


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dottsie
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16 Mar 2013, 9:11 pm

i was homeschooled up until 9th grade, because i chose to go to high school to try it
during the time i would have been in elementary school, mainly the only thing i did besides schoolwork was play with barbies. i had no interest in anything else



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16 Mar 2013, 10:45 pm

I saw myself as quiet - always afraid of doing something wrong in case I got in trouble. In those days teachers could hit you and I was scared of that. I was also clever and just sailed through junior school (5 - 11) without effort. Moving on, I went literally from the top of the class to the bottom. I was a nuisance, always asking questions. I am a very scruffy writer and struggled to keep up note taking. I know some teachers tried to explain that I didn't have to write everything word for word and that I could read things up at home but I had no real support from anyone and ended up doing badly. It was a great shame as my father once showed me how to do some maths and it was so easy when someone was able to explain it simply, but my father didn't like me very much and I was afraid to ask him and he never offered again. I went back into education in my thirties, got a degree, professional qualification in the work I wanted to do and then got a masters. I probably wasn't ready to understand how to study until then.



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16 Mar 2013, 11:12 pm

I was extremely quiet and shy..... except when my special interests of Astronomy or Geography were the subjects when I would shock everyone by not shutting up. Overall I was a model student and while teased a bit generally just kept to myself. The bullying didn't start until late in my final year. I had little trouble with any work with the exception of writing: my handwriting was atrocious and I spent hours upon hours practicing it.

Like how someone said it wasn't that I hated the other students or wanted them to go away: I simply preferred to play and work alone just like I generally do to this day.



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17 Mar 2013, 2:48 am

Don't know which school elementary school is because I am in England but I was early to read & write and enjoyed junior school and primary school. I was always top of the class and was very sporty so that always helps with friends but once I moved to senior school and it gets more serious I started to struggle. Grades went downhill over 3 years and I found it harder and harder to make friends. By the 4th year (age 15) I starting taking a lot of drugs and that just screwed me up more. My lifelong food oddities also turned into serious eating disorders too so I ended up missing some school and I ballsed up my exams.

Told my mum about my diagnosis for AS for the first time 2 days ago. Was pretty nervous but she was surprisingly good about it and said it all made sense. She told me that she always felt like she lost me for a few years from around 13 years old as I became more and more withdrawn and my behaviour became strange.



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17 Mar 2013, 4:56 am

Miserable, misanthropic and gradually feeling species dysphoric because of almost all my human interaction was being bullied. Generally, I would have probably been even quieter than I am now, and maybe even a bit shy rather than just disinterested. First few years I think I had a lot of trouble with actually keeping up and teachers treated it like I was just misbehaving, but by my 5th or 6th year there I was the top of my class in everything. I must have became capable of dealing with everything that was going on, but I have no idea how.


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eightshots
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18 Mar 2013, 10:42 pm

I had ADD, got bored with school quickly. Did advanced math and all that stuff, so I did good in those subjects, but only up until 7th grade or so. Looking back at my school reports, etc, it was clear I had ADHD, but was never diagnosed... just always got in trouble for being a bad student, inattentive, etc. I still never did good in school, in college as well. But luckily computers and programming held my interest from early on. I always got picked on and bullied, etc, spent most of my middle school lunches in the computer lab. Had a "girlfriend" in 8th grade (lol), but looking back on that as well, it was an awkward mess for me..



Wycca
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18 Mar 2013, 11:31 pm

I was always the quiet girl that sat near the front of the class most of the time. (Thanks to being badly farsighted and not getting glasses until the fifth grade. After that I prefered the back.) In second or third grade I can't remember which, I was put into a special math and writing class because I was having problems with my handwritting, spelling, and counting. Something about the way they taught things never worked for me but one day I realized what I needed to do and how to do it in a way that was a lot easier for me to understand and things fell into place. With math anyway. I still can't write legibly or spell my way out of a wet paper bag. I was also in a speech therapy class up until six grade. Once again it never really helped I think in the end my parents took me out of that program because they saw that it wasn't doing anything.

When I was in class though I always listened to the teacher and followed the rules no matter what. Though I did often forget homework or report cards I needed to get signed and have to finish it real quick at the beginning of the day. There were actually whole school days where I would go all day without talking to a single person. I also had a bad habit of spending most of lunch and recess off in my own world and would wonder around by myself acting out various adventures that were playing in my head. How I managed to get through to high school without becoming a target for bullies I can only imagine was because I went to a small school. Even in high school it wasn't to bad except for the noise and crowded hallways, but after awhile I built a good enough mental map that I could get from one class to the next while off in my own world again to get away from it all. Oh and at one point I got permission from my culinary arts teacher to stay in the classroom to wash dishes instead of going to lunch. It was great! I could eat my own lunch and listen to music or read for an hour without any interruptions other than another teacher walking by the hallway.

So yeah over all a quiet, if very quirky and spacy, out of the way kid that people tended to forget was there until they needed a question answered.



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18 Mar 2013, 11:48 pm

Good student, bullied by the other kids, "problem child" - meaning I broke or argued with rules that didn't make sense to me and had meltdowns, loved to read and draw.

All of this is still true except that I am now bullied by adults.



shyengineer
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19 Mar 2013, 12:02 am

Ah, the glory days. I was a blue-eyed, blond-haired, buck-toothed ladies man and a top student. I even danced.



Tyri0n
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19 Mar 2013, 12:13 am

A serious behavior problem with lots of meltdowns, violent/aggressive behavior, garbled speech, and practically a ret*d.



Webalina
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19 Mar 2013, 2:41 am

I was very sweet and nice, according to my mom's friends and my teachers.

I was awkward and uncoordinated. I was naive and clueless when it came to socializing with other children.

I talked too much in class, but it affected the other students' work more os than mine. I always made good grades...

But not good enough. My teachers always said "She is so bright. But she doesn't apply herself."